Mighty Zeke is the 9th and final Correll to attend Anderson

Enquirer journalists discuss the high school football season.
The Enquirer/Phil Didion

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Zeke Correll, Anderson High School class of 2019, has emerged as a top offensive lineman recruit in the area with offers from Ohio State, Wisconsin and Kentucky, to name a few.(Photo: The Enquirer/Adam Baum)Buy Photo

Along came Zeke, who’s now a 6-foot-4, 275-pound offensive lineman at Anderson High School with college football offers from schools like the University of Kentucky, Ohio State and Wisconsin to name a few.

Next year will be the 23rd consecutive year a Correll sibling has been at Anderson.

“How could I break (the tradition of) eight older siblings going to the same school?” said Zeke. “It’s awesome. Some of the teachers will be like, ‘Oh, you’re the last one.’ They all know my older siblings, which automatically starts a relationship with them even if I don’t know them.”

STRONG MAN

Steve, an ordained minister from Somerset, Kentucky, who’s preached in more than 30 countries, said, “Each time we got pregnant it was like we would know … we were supposed to have another one. After eight, I wasn’t listening anymore. I ain’t listening and I ain’t asking,” Steve laughed.

“For two years, every day, if I tried to pray — I’d be out traveling, doing ministry, preaching — these words would come bubbling up, every time I prayed it would be like, ‘Will you let me bless you?’ This pervasive thought would hit my mind,” Steve said. “So this went on for not months, but almost two years … sometimes more than once a day and it was driving me crazy. The only thing I can imagine is (God) wants us to have another child and I know that’s not what it is.

“At the time, I was 40 and my wife was pushing 40. It was like I got a silent nod from heaven, ‘That’s what I want; that’s how I want to bless you.’”

Steve told his wife, “I think God wants us to have another baby. ... It can’t be that bad if he’s been telling me for two years he wants to bless us … it’s gotta be a good thing.’”

Lisa (née Schafer), a 1977 Anderson graduate, said, “It’s kind of funny. They laid him on my stomach and his knee bone looked so huge. I just looked at Steve and I was like, ‘Is there something wrong with him?’ because I know what a little baby knee bone looks like. Steve said no, he’s just big.”

Steve said, “All of our children’s names are Bible names, but Ezekiel means ‘strong man; strong man of God.’ We just felt like he was gonna be strong and big. We didn’t know that, we just felt that. So that was the name we picked for him. It seems to fit.”

FOOTBALL FAMILY

“Zeke started football at 5 years old,” said Lisa. “He just couldn’t wait.”

This past summer, Zeke, whose four older brothers (Gabe, Caleb, Jesse and Josh) all played football, needed some work on his pass protection, and to accomplish that, he needed a pass rusher.

So the Corrells’ backyard became a training ground as Zeke's dad lined up across from him.

Lisa laughed, “My husband, to this day, has very quick feet. He’s very fast. It’s pretty shocking. He might not win in a 50-yard dash, but he could actually get out there and kind of spar with him. He took a few beatings but I think really helped him.”

Steve said, “He was tossing me around like a rag doll. I was like, ‘I think I’m gonna get your brothers. I’ll be right back.’”

Zeke’s size isn’t the only thing that makes him so appealing to the next level.

Anderson head coach Evan Dreyer said, “I think not only is it his size, but his hand-to-hand combat and his pass blocking has improved. Last year as a sophomore, his physicality and the way he finishes blocks is what made him stand out. He finishes plays.”

The Correll family(Photo: Thanks to Lisa Correll)

BOUND BY FAITH, FAMILY

“Family is as close as we can get to heaven on this earth,” said Steve. “That’s what we got, man.”

Steve met Lisa in college at the University of Kentucky, where he played football and she played club soccer and softball. The first time he saw her, she was playing softball.

After three years at Kentucky, Steve quit football and finished school at Asbury College.

“While I was there, I was really discouraged. I was crying out to God,” said Steve, who described a dream in which he was married to a beautiful girl and they had three blonde-haired daughters. “I felt so encouraged.

“A month after we got married, Lisa got pregnant and I remember cupping my hands around her little tummy and saying, ‘... you’re gonna be a son.’ It was a daughter. Second one, same thing, and I gave up. I knew the third one was gonna be a girl.”

From the oldest to Zeke, the Correll children are: Sarah, Rachael, Hannah, Gabe, Mary, Caleb, Jesse and Josh.

Sarah ran track in Oxford at Miami University and today, she lives with her husband and children in New Jersey. Rachael, a youth ministry worker, lives in Capetown, South Africa, with her husband and children, and Hannah works on Wall Street and will get married in November.

Gabe played one season of football at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, then earned a preferred walk-on spot from Joker Phillips to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather (Ray Correll, an All-American under Bear Bryant) playing football at Kentucky. Now, Gabe works in Austin, Texas.

Mary's also followed in her parents' footsteps as a youth pastor in Manhattan.

Caleb, who according to Steve, is the most athletic Correll, will graduate next year from Notre Dame’s law school. Caleb played college baseball at King University until a cancer diagnosis derailed his playing career.

“I think he was going into his third season (at King) and he came home after fall ball and was having a hard time breathing,” said Steve. “He went to work out one morning, came home saying, ‘Mom, I’m having a hard time breathing,’ so we took him to the hospital. They said he had a big mass in the center of his chest. Turned out, he had a softball-size mass in his chest, a cancerous mass. It had leaked over into his lung. Stage 4.

“Here’s Caleb, our little stud athlete, playing baseball, having the time of his life and he comes home and has cancer in his lymph glands and his blood. The doctors here at Children’s were very sober and brought us into the room and there were about a dozen white coats. They put him in (intensive care) right away and he’s struggling for his life. I mean, he went to workout that morning to lift weights. Nine months of the hospital and two years of chemotherapy, he never once complained, not one time.”

Caleb would transfer to Northern Kentucky and graduated with honors in finance and accounting. He’s been cancer free for four years now.

Jesse and Josh both played college football together at Malone University. Josh, who's about four years older than Zeke, still plays as a senior this season and Jesse graduated last December.

“Raising a family was, and I believe will be, our most wonderful achievement. We raised them to go out and make a difference in the world, to go out and change the world, and really they are, each one of them in their own unique way. They’re all wonderful people,” said Steve.

After they were married, Lisa and Steve lived in Zimbabwe for six months doing mission work. They’ve both lived their lives for others. That simple fact obviously inspired their children to do the same.

“They’ve all wanted to spread their wings. They weren’t afraid to go wherever they felt led to go. Right now, I’m kind of like, ‘Hey, where’s all the married couples that need to be in Cincinnati so I can be a grandma to those grand-babies,” laughed Lisa. “I think Zeke and all of our children have been used in that way. God has a plan for Zeke and he’s raising him up to have a voice for good things. A lot of people can have skill and I’m sure there’s plenty of people just as good or better than he is but to have that character, that goes with it.”

Even though life has spread them out, the Corrells remain close, bound together by faith and love.

In a couple years, Zeke’s path could take him away from Anderson Township. No matter where that is, Zeke will remember where he’s from and who his family is.

“I feel so blessed every day of my life just thanking God for these beautiful children,” said Steve. “When we got the news about Caleb, I was driving home from the hospital, I remember crying my eyes out, thinking, ‘Shoot, this guy could die. He could die.’ It still hurts telling you this right now, but you know what? He’s alive.

“A lot of people on their death beds, how many of them say, ‘I wish I would have worked more and made more money?’ They never say that. It’s, ‘I wish I would have spent more time with my family or gotten to know my children better.’”